Philosophy for Children in Iran: From Beginning up to Now …

Philosophy for Children in Iran: From Beginning up to Now …

Dr. Yahya Ghaedi, Sahar Soltani

In this short collection we aim at summarizing the attempts and practices in the field of “Philosophy for Children Program” during the recent years by the Iranian practitioners and researchers. We intend to record the sequence of these activities chronologically and according to their contents. In advance we apologize all of those who has done any services in this field but their names are not mentioned in this collection. We would do our best to complete this collection.

(Please feel free to contact us on our website for introducing your publications and activities. We would add the works to the collection as soon as possible. Please send your publications or activities according to the classifications mentioned in this history of Philosophy for Children).

۱٫ Book Publications

A. Theoretical Books on Philosophy for Children

۱٫۱٫ Dr. Yahya Ghaedi published his doctoral dissertation entitled as “Investigating and criticizing philosophical views and principles of teaching philosophy to children” in a book named “Teaching Philosophy to Children- investigating theoretical principles”. He raises some epistemological questions and proposes that teaching philosophy to children could be approached from three dimensions: 1) with regard to the meaning of philosophy, 2) in comparison to teaching philosophy to adults, and 3) from the viewpoint of Piaget psychology. The results of his study indicate that: 1) the real meaning of philosophy is philosophizing and the child could learn the philosophy, 2) for philosophizing we need wonder and amazement which is naturally intrinsic to the children and hence is prior to adults from this aspect, and 3) the recent studies show that against the Piaget theory that children under 12 have no abstract thinking, children in primary school and middle school are able to philosophize. In this collection, the totality of this program is investigated and adapted to the principles of curriculum developing and the educational transmission issue.

۱٫۲٫ Saeed Naji and “Developing Thinking for Children” group published the book “Philosophical Inquiry for Children and Adolescents/Dialogue with the Pioneers of a New Revolution in Education” in Research Centre for Human Sciences and Studies in 2006. They also established a website, www.p4c.ir, with the aim of introducing this program in Iran.

B. Publication of Philosophical Stories for Children

۱٫۳٫ Dr. Morteza Khosro Nejad (Who published the local book of philosophy for children) proposed the philosophical features of children literature in a paper titled “The Characteristics and Issues in Children’s Literature” in 2002. He mentions conformity with formal education system in Iran as the most important condition for this program. In 2007, he published a paper titled “A consideration of the relationship between children’s literature and philosophy in philosophy for children program”; in this paper he probes the innovations in education. In 2009, he published a pictorial book as “Intellectual Stories” that includes ten story books with illusions for developing the philosophical thinking of the children.

۱٫۴٫ Saeed Naji and his colleagues, Zohre Sadeghi Abadi, Romina, Sadat Kermai, and Mahvash Taklif, published a book titled “The Philosopher Kid, Leila”, in 2011 and dedicated this book to the field of philosophy for children.

۱٫۵٫ Yahya Ghaedi and Sahar Soltani also are in the middle of the process of publishing a book titled “Saina’s Adventures” which would be introduced to the market with the cooperating teacher’s book.

۲٫ Translation of Book in the Field of Philosophy for Children (Theoretical Section)

۲٫۱٫ Abdolrasool Jamshidian translated the book “Children as Philosophers” written by Joanna Haynes into Persian in 2004. This book was translated for the second time by Abbas Ardekani In 2005.

۲٫۲٫ Hamide Bahraini translated the book “Questioning Matters” written by Daniel Kolak in 2005.              

۲٫۳٫ Dr. Masoud Safayi Moghadam translated the book “Teaching Children to Think” written by Robert Fisher in cooperation with Afsane Najarian in 2006.    

۲٫۴٫ Dr. Yahya Ghaedi translated the book “Children as Philosophers” by Joanna Haynes, David Kennedy and White which includes one book and two papers in the field of philosophy for children.

۳٫ Translation of Philosophical Story Books

۳٫۱٫ In 2007, Vahid Nik Khah Azad translated the pictorial books of Leo Lionni into Persian; these series of books include abstract and philosophical concept. As an example “Little Piece” which raises the question “Who am I?” and the concept of identity. It should be mentioned that at the time these books were translated, the subject of philosophy for children was not introduced in Iran and these books merely aimed at developing thinking in children.

۳٫۲٫ In 2000, Ehsane Bagheri translated the book “Thinking Stories and Teacher’s Guide” by Philip Cam into Persian.

۳٫۳٫ In 2005, Mahdi Kianian and Shirin Sharifian translated the book ” Philosophical Stories for Kids and Adolescents” written by Per Jespersen into Persian.

۳٫۴٫ In 2005, Hamide Bahraini translated the book “Questioning Matters” written by Daniel Kolak into Persian.

۳٫۵٫ In 2006, Farzaneh Shartash, Dr. Mojgan Rashtchi and Zahir Bagheri translated the book “Thinking Stories: Books 1 and 7 with 74 activities” written by Philip Cam into Persian. They also translated the book “۲۰ Thinking Tools: Collaborative Inquiry for the Classroom” written by the same author into Parisian in 2008.

۳٫۶٫ In 2007, Jalil Shahroodi Langaroodi translated the book “Stories for Thinking” written by Robert Fisher into Persian. This book was translated for the second time by Leila Lotfi Pour in 2009.

۳٫۷٫ In 2007, Parvaneh Oroujnia translated “How to unite the world?” by Brigitte Labbe and Michel Puech in the field of teaching ethics and philosophy. He also translated “Imagine the World …” by the same author in 2008 which served the field of teaching philosophy to children and adolescents.

۳٫۸٫ In 2008, Fatemeh Ranjbaran and Mona Par translated “The Doll Hospital” by Ann Margaret Sharp and Laurance Splitter.

۳٫۹٫ In 2008, Elham Fakhrayi translated “Kids Philosophy Club” written by Philip Christopher.

۳٫۱۰٫ In 2008, Mojgan Mohaghagh translated “Short Thinking Stories for Teaching to Adolescents” written by Per Jespersen.

۳٫۱۱٫ In 2010, Morad Yari and Rohollah Heidari translated “Philosphy in the Classroom” written by Ron Shaw.

۳٫۱۲٫ In 2010, Mehdi Zarghamian translated a series of books for thinking which targeted adolescents. This series include the books such as “Les Philo-fables” written by Michel Piquemaland “Philosophy explained to my daughter” written byRoger Pol Droit.

۳٫۱۳٫ A series of books written by Oscar Breni Fier were translated by various translators and published by Shahrtash Publications.

۳٫ Papers

۳٫۱٫ Khodayar Mohebi, Shafigheh. (1998). Philosophical Literature for Children

۳٫۲٫ Safayi Moghadam, Masoud. (1998). Philosophy Educational Program for Children

۳٫۳٫ Ghaedi, Yahya. (2006). Philosophy Educational Program for Children in Primary School.

۳٫۴٫ Ghaedi, Yahya (2008). Cooperative Curriculum for middle and High School Students. Seventh Conference of Curriculum Studies Society, Tarbiat Moallem University, Tehran.

۳٫۴٫ Ghaedi, Y. and Hajihoseinnejad, Gh. (2009). Planning a framework for assessing child philosophy curriculum Italy-Padova

۳٫۵٫ Ghaedi, Y. and Aliaskari, M. (2008). Teaching Thinking to Children through Philosophizing. State University of Moscow

۳٫۶٫ Ghaedi, Y. (2006). Teaching Thinking to Children through Philosophizing. South Africa Grahams Town University

۳٫۷٫ Ghaedi, Y. (2009). The Nature and Scope of Teaching Philosophy to Children. Thirteenth Conference In the Memory of Hakim Sadrolmotealin Molasadra

۳٫۸٫ Ghaedi, Y. (2010). The Philosophy of Teaching Philosophy to Children. The Universal Congress of Philosophy, Tehran

۳٫۹٫ Ghaedi, Y. (2010). The Role of Philosophy in Developing Youths’ Judgment Power. Fourteenth Molasadra Congress, Tehran

۳٫۱۰٫ Ghaedi, Y. (2003). Philosophizing about University Textbook, Sokhane Samt Journal, No. 12, summer 2003.  

۳٫۱۱٫ Ghaedi, Y. (2007). Investigating the Theoretical Bases of the Philosophy for Children Curriculum from the viewpoint of Intellectualist Philosophers, Quarterly of Curriculum Studies, 2 (6)

۳٫۱۲٫ Ghaedi, Y. (2008). The Possibility of Teaching Philosophy to Children: Challenges over Concept, Quarterly of Curriculum Studies, 2(7)

۳٫۱۳٫ Ghaedi, Y. Haji Hossein Nejad, Gh., and Ghazavi, F. (2008). A Critic نقد on the Book Pixie and the teaching guide “In search of Mean”, Quarterly of Curriculum Studies, 2(7)

۳٫۱۴٫ Hedayati, M. Ghaedi, Y., and Shafiabadi, A. (2009). The effects of the philosophy for children program through the Community of inquiry method on the improvement of inter personal relationship skills in primary school students. Quarterly of Novel Ideas in Education, Azad University of Roodehen, No. 15

۳٫۱۵٫ Hedayati, M., and Ghaedi, Y. (2009). The effects of the philosophy for children program through the Community of inquiry method on the improvement of inter personal relationship skills in primary school students, Childhood & philosophy, Vol. 5, No. 9

۳٫۱۶٫ Ghaedi, Y. (2009). The curriculum of teaching philosophy to children program for middle and high school, Farhang (Specific edition on Children and Adolescents), Humanities Research Centre, Vol. 22, No. 1

۳٫ ۱۷٫ Foroozanfar, J., Ghaedi, Y., Naghibzadeh, M. and Mohemdonya, A. (2010). In search of independence, Biannual of Children Literature, Shiraz University, No. 2.

۳٫۱۸٫ Hedayati, M. Ghaedi, Y., and Shafiabadi, A. (2009). The effects of the philosophy for children program through the Community of inquiry method on the improvement of self-esteem in primary school, Journal of Studies and Novelties in Counselling, No.

۳٫۱۹٫ Samadi, M. Ghaedi, Y. and Ramazani, M. (2011). A contrastive study of philosophy curriculum through philosophy for children program in third grade of high school and pre-university grade in Iran, Education Quarterly.

۳٫۲۰٫ Hosseini, A., Ghaedi, Y., and Hessam, H. (2011). Philosophical approaches for children in relation to curriculum, Quarterly of Educational Novel Ideas

۴٫ Research and Studies

۴٫۱٫ Dr. Reza Ali Nouroozi

In 2005, a research with the experimental design was led on the subject of “The effects of philosophical activities for children from the viewpoint of primary students of Isfahan”. This research focused on investigating the role of teaching philosophy in improving students’ behaviours in terms of eight criteria that include following disciplines, respecting adults, appropriate interaction among the learners, better understanding of subjects, improving responsibility, self-confidence, self-esteem, and creativity. This research was done experimentally in one of the boy primary schools in Isfahan educational restriction 3. The researchers investigated the P4C approach in the second and fifth grades of primary school. Finally the results showed that implementation of this program affected the eight mentioned criteria as well as students’ educational achievements.

۴٫۲٫ Dr. Yahya Ghaedi

Dr. Yahya Ghaedi in cooperation with Dr. Saeed Zarghami ad Dr. Narges Sajadiyeh have created and developed a philosophy for children curriculum. This project which was conducted for Iran Education Ministry was evaluated in 2011.

۵٫ Master Thesis

۵٫۱٫ Hashemi

In 2006, Hashemi investigated the application of method and elements of Matthew Lipman in math and science subjects in a paper titled “The place of critical thinking in the content of primary fifth grade textbooks”. In addition to case study of the Lipman’s elements, he focuses on reforming the teaching method in educational curriculum in Iran.

۵٫۲٫ Fatemeh Ghazavi (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Ghaedi and Dr. Haj Hossein Nejad)

In 2007, Fatemeh Ghazavi conducted her thesis titled “Investigating teaching philosophy to children in third grade (Pixie) in terms of curriculum developing principles”. In this thesis, she translated and criticized the content of the book “Pixie” and its guide according to the elements of curriculum developing principles.

۵٫۳٫ Narges Sajadian Jaghargh (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Ghaedi and Dr. Ataran)

In 2007, Narges Sajadian Jaghargh conducted a thesis titled “Developing a curriculum for teaching philosophy to children in primary school first grade in Iran”. She specifically developed a P4C program for the primary school first grad. This study mainly aimed at investigating the theoretical bases (child psychology, child sociology, children’s literature, and the nature of primary school) of the curriculum for teaching philosophy to children. Furthermore, it focused on proposing the main subjects of the textbook content that include some philosophical terms in line with the cognitive development of children at this age. The learning-teaching guidelines are specified according to the features of community of inquiry method and the educational approaches offered by P4C. In this study, the research method had theoretical as well as descriptive-survey dimensions. The developed curriculum was finally validated through the comments provided by the experts in the field of education and teaching philosophy to children. The curriculum was approved by several researchers and practitioners in the same field.

۵٫۴٫ Khadijeh Mokhtari (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Iravani and Dr. Ghaedi)

In 2007, Khadijeh Mokhtari investigated three fields of ontology, epistemology and axiology of teaching fiction concepts in her thesis titled “A content analysis of short fictions in Iran with regard to the place of teaching philosophical concepts”. She analyzed 41selected books from fictions with three styles of narrating (question and answer, intervention of the narrator, and revealing thoughts). The results of this study showed that the question and answer method had the most frequent application in teaching, understanding, and transmitting the concepts.

۵٫۶٫ Kharestani

In 2008, Kharestani conducted a thesis titled “A contrastive explanation of goals and methods for teaching philosophy to children in various countries”. This study raised the questions such as the goals of P4C program, methods, similarities and differences among in implementing the program in various countries.

۷٫۵٫ Seyed Hessam Hosseini (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Afzal Sadat Hosseini and Dr. Ghaedi)

In 2008, Seyed Hessam Hosseini proposed his thesis tiled “Investigating various approaches to P4C program and the relation with primary school curriculum in Iran”. In addition to probing different approaches of this program in various countries, this study also focused on some of the curricula such as social studies, religious trainings, science and Persian literature. As this study showed the curricula in Iranian schools failed to achieve their applied goals in developing a philosophizing and reasoning soul in student.

۵٫۸٫ Shiva Ramezanpour (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Samadi and Dr. Mahroo Zadeh)

In 2008, Shiva Ramezanpour conducted her thesis on “The effects of community of inquiry method on citizenship skills of third grade primary school students in teaching philosophy to children program”. This study was conducted on the third grade school boys of a primary school in Kerman. The sample for this study included 60school boys who were selected through non-random sampling method from students of third grade primary school. The data collection instrument used in this study included observation and journalism as well as a researcher-made questionnaire which consisted of 39 structured questions which aimed at evaluating the citizenship skills of primary school students. In order to investigate the research hypothesis the pretest-posttest design was adapted. Descriptive statistics, such as table, the central indices diagram, and distribution as well as inferential statistics including parametric t-test were used to analyze the collected data. In the qualitative phase of the research, the collected data through observation and journalism were used for analytic descriptions and classifications of behavioral changes in students. As the results of this study revealed, the implementation of community of inquiry method in P4C program could positively affect the citizenship skills of students. It could affect the components of citizenship skill such as following the rules, self-awareness, self-confidence, emotional control, and solving the conflicts.

۵٫۹٫ Masumeh Ramezani (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Samadi and Dr. Ghaedi)

In 2009, Masumeh Ramezani presented her thesis on “A contrastive investigation of philosophy curriculum in third grade high school and pre-university grade in Iran and philosophy for children program in 11^th and 12^th grade”. This study probed the place of philosophy for children in Iran and raised points such as the possibility of changing and revising of philosophy for children program to adapt the Islamic values and culture of Iranian society.

۵٫۱۰٫ Sahar Soltani (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Hesamifar, Dr. Seif, and Dr. Ghaedi)

In 2009, Sahar Soltani conducted her thesis on “Wittgenstein Pragmatism with regard to Matthew Lipman’s approach”. It focused on the pragmatic dimensions of Wittgenstein‘s ideas and his viewpoints on children and human philosophical understanding as well as the effects of these ideas on Matthew Lipman views and developing P4C program by him.

۵٫۱۱٫ Faranak Mehregan (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Sarmadi and Dr. Marashi)

In 2009. Faranak Mehregan conducted her thesis on “Analyzing the epistemological basics of P4C program with regard to Lipman and Fisher’s styles”. This study focused on investigating addressing the following questions: 1) What definitions have been offered for philosophy with/for children up to now? 2) What are the goals of philosophy with/for children? 3) What are the features of “community of inquiry” method? 4) What are the defined roles for teachers and students in this program? 5) What are the subjects and contents considered in this program? 6) How are the students’ functions evaluated in this program? 7) What are the differences between the methods proposed Fisher and Lipman? (European and American styles) 8) What are the results produces by implantation of philosophy for children? 9) What actions are taken in line with this program in Iran? 10) What are the necessary preparations for further effectiveness of this program in Iran? The research method adapted in this research included document- analytic as well as analysis of data according to method as the content analysis method. The results of this study showed that philosophy for/with children include applied philosophies and educational projects which familiarize curious children in search of mean with thinking, cognitive, meta-cognitive, and questioning skills in an inquiry and cooperative process. This program leads children in thinking challenge, interaction, exchanging ideas, consultation, and judgment through applying childish reasoning and imagination in a democratic class atmosphere. This is done with the aim of deconstructing social and thinking skills and improving the philosophical aspects of their daily life experiences. Some of the specific features practiced in this type of philosophical and cooperative inquiry include listening, mutual respect, sympathy, intimacy, improved reasoning, silence, raising philosophical and appropriate questions, freedom and independence in thinking, confidence and trust, order and coordination, reflection, thinking, and experiencing, challenge, inquiry and evaluation, wonder and kindness, correction, differentiation and explanation, evaluative reasoning and choosing. These qualities are developed in the children so that they would be thinker adults in the future.

۵٫۱۲٫ Sara Kalantari Meibodi (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Bani Jamali and Dr. Khosravi)

In 2009, Sara Kalantari Meibodi proposed her thesis entitled “The effectiveness of implementing P4C on reduction of irrational thinking in school girl of first grade middle school in Broojen”. To do this study, first the irrational thinking scale of children and adolescents was administered to a sample of 147 of school boys and girls in middle school in Broojen in order to obtain the psychometric feature of this scale. Second, two classes were selected through cluster random sampling method. Then, through random assignment, one of the classes was assigned as experiment group and the other as the control group. These two groups were compared by using a pre-post test design. After administering the pretest to both groups, the experiment group was educated by P4C program for 15 sessions. At the end, both groups participated in posttest. To control the pretest effects, the obtained data were analyzed through covariance analysis (ANACOVA). The results indicated that P4C program meaningfully reduced the irrational thinking in children. This meaningful reduction was observed in all of the sub-scales of irrational thinking scale except in intolerance to occupational failures.

۵٫۱۳٫ Ashraf Sadat Mirshafiyan (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Mahroozadeh and Dr. Samadi)

In 2009, Ashraf Sadat Mirshafiyan studied the relationship between philosophy and education in her thesis, “Developing the problem solving ability through teaching philosophy to children”. This study, which is fundamental-applied, was done following the library and note taking methods and addressed these issues: 1) explanation of problem solving skill, 2) explanation of teaching philosophy to children, and 3) the relationship between problem solving skill and teaching philosophy to children.

۵٫۱۴٫ Mandana Mohamadi (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Shaghaghi and Dr. Agha Younesi)

In 2009, Mandana Mohamadi presented her thesis on “The effects of philosophy for children program on cognitive evolution, logical-mathematic intelligence and intelligence quotient (IQ) in school girls of fourth grade primary school in Tehran 13^th educational restrict in 2008-2009”. In this study, 40 students were selected from students of fourth grade primary school through staged random sampling. In the next stage, these students were assigned to experimental and control groups through random assignment. After this stage the pretest was administered and the results were obtained. In the next stage, the experimental group was educated for one month which included 24 hours of education in 12 sessions. After the completion of sessions, the posttest was administered to both groups and the results were obtained for each group. The results for the two groups were compared and the effectiveness of the treatment was evaluated through the statistical method of covariance. As the results showed the effectiveness of treatment was 6% for IQ and 23% for mathematics.

۵٫۱۵٫ Akram Shoushtari (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Safayi Moghadam and Dr. Marashi)

In 2009, Akram Shoushtari conducted her thesis on “Contrastive study of epistemological basics of Jean Piaget and Matthew Lipman educational ideas with regard to philosophy for children program”. In this study the ideas of two great theorists, Piaget and Lipman, who have different ideas and their educational ideas considerably influenced teaching methods were studied contrastively. The basic presupposition in Piaget ideas is that reasoning and intellection in children would develop naturally as they grow up and spending time on facilitating this process would be futile and unnecessary. But Lipman proposes that the best time for developing thinking skills is the childhood and through reflection-oriented methods.

۵٫۱۶٫ Jalal Shamsi (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Ghaedi and Dr. Zarghami)

In 2010, Jalal Shamsi did his thesis on “Investigating why and how of teaching logic to children”. He addressed the necessities of teaching logic to children, and the appropriate methods and approaches. One of the main results obtained by this study was indicating the necessity of teaching logic to children from early ages in order to prevent the weakening and destruction of their sense of questioning. This study recommended applying “logic games” as a method to improve problem solving skill in children.

۵٫۱۷٫ Fatemeh Sadat Musavi (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Afzal Sadat Hosseini and Dr. Ghaedi)

In 2010, Fatemeh Sadat Musavi, conducted her thesis on “Challenges and chances of teaching philosophy to children and proposing a pattern for Iranian educational setting”. This study aimed at revealing the weaknesses and strengths of this program through interviews with teachers and practitioners in P4C program in order to discuss the challenges and chances of this program in Iran as well as localization of this program.

۵٫۱۸٫ …………………………

In 2010, ………………….. conducted her/his thesis on “Meta-physics basics of philosophy for children in the field of jurisprudence and Islamic principles” in Azad University of Karaj.

۵٫۱۹٫ Reyhaneh Makouyi (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Afzal Sadat Hosseini and Dr. Ghaedi)

In 2010, Reyhaneh Makouyi did her thesis on “Investigating and criticizing the method for creating scientific inquiry spirit in P4C program”. This study investigated the book “Kio and Gus” and its guide “Wondering at the World” and challenged the concept and method of scientific inquiry spirit.

۶٫ Doctoral Dissertations

۶٫۱٫ Dr. JafarJahani

In 2001, Dr. Jafar Jahani conducted his dissertation on “Investigating and criticizing the philosophical basics of critical thinking teaching pattern offered by Matthew Lipman”. This study considered the five main principles of Lipmean pattern including a focus on contextualism, relativism, judgment as the educational goal, using hypothesis-inductive, and highlighting the criterion as the main leading factor for critical thinking. In this study the researcher underlined that Lipman pattern favors low generalizablity due to focusing on “contextualism”. Furthermore, Lipman’s emphasis on relativism approach and his rejection of objectivivm have restricted his pattern.

۶٫۲٫ Dr. Yahya Ghaedi (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Naghibzadeh, Dr. Movahed, and Dr. Bagheri)

In 2003, Dr. Ghaedi conducted his doctoral dissertation on “Investigating and criticizing the philosophical views and principles of teaching philosophy to children”. This study is considered as the first Persian publication with the purpose of introducing theoretical elements of philosophy for children program.

۶٫۳٫ Dr. Masoud Marashi

In 2006, Dr. Marashi did his doctoral dissertation on “The effects of community of inquiry method from teaching philosophy to children program on developing reasoning skills in third grade middle school boys of Ahvaz”. The research method used in this study was experimental-field method and the results confirmed that the implementation of community of inquiry method in the classroom could positively affect students’ reasoning skills. These results are in line with the other research done in the same field in other countries.

۶٫۴٫ Dr. Mehrnoosh Hedayati (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Ghaedi and Dr. Shafiabadi)

In 2008, Mehrnoosh Hedayati did her doctoral dissertation on “The effects of Implementing philosophy for children program as community of inquiry on improving self-esteem and interpersonal relationship of primary school students in Tehran”. This study was conducted on experimental and control groups which included 190 school boy s and girls from primary school. The results of this study revealed a meaningful difference in self-esteem and interpersonal relationship of students in experimental group and control group.

۵٫۶٫ Dr. Javad Forouzanfar (Advised and Supervised by Dr. Ghaedi, Dr. Naghibzadeh, and Dr. Mamoodnia)

In 2010, Dr. Javad Forouzanfar conducted his dissertation titled “Investigating childhood philosophy and the role of story and narrative in the development of philosophical spirit in children”. This dissertation focused on the educational approaches that address children as the goal. Furthermore, the role of story is investigated in developing the philosophical spirit in children through applying some Iranian and non-Iranian stories.

۷٫ Workshops

۷٫۱٫ Dr. Yahya Ghaedi

One of the actions taken with the aim of achieving the P4C goal has been holding teacher training workshops in recent years. The details of these workshops could be found in www.iranp4c.com.

۱٫ Holding the first teacher training workshop for P4C in the second conference of the philosophy of education society in May 2011 in Tehran Tarbiat Moallem University

۲٫ Holding P4C workshop for pre-school children for Isfahan Kids Supporters Society in June 2011

۳٫ Holding a three-day workshop for primary school teachers of Sama Schools of Azad University in the summer of 2011.

۴٫ Holding philosophy for children workshop for PhD students of philosophy of education in Tehran Tarbiat Moallem University in October 2011.

۵٫ Holding the second workshop for developing teaching skills in P4C program in November 2011.

۶٫ Holding P4C workshop in the honor of research week in Tehran Tarbiat Moallem University in December 2011.

۷٫۲٫ “Developing Children Thinking” group (FBK) or in humanities studies organization

Dr. Mehrnoosh Hedayati and Saeed Naji have presented various workshops with the cooperation of FBK group with the aim of expanding P4C program and training teachers in this field.

۷٫۳٫ Philosophy and Children Research Group of Molasadra Islamic Wisdom Foundation

The center of “Philosophy and Children” was established by Molasadra Islamic Wisdom Foundation in 1994. The studies conducted in the field of philosophy received the new title of “Philosophy for Children”. This group has hold workshops and published the reports of these workshops with the purpose of implementing P4C program and training teachers. The readers can refer to http://pac.org.ir for further information on the activities of this group.

۸٫ Developing the curriculum design for educational system of Iran and establishing the Philosophy for Children major in master and PhD levels

۸٫۱٫ Dr. Yahya Ghaedi

Dr. Ghaedi and his colleagues in Tehran Tarbiat Moallem University in “Philosophy of Education” group are developing a proposal for establishing the Philosophy for Children major in higher education levels. Furthermore, they have focused on implementing P4C in Iranian educational system in various grades from primary to pre-university.